Pubdate: Thu, 15 Sep 2005
Source: Medicine Hat News (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc.
Contact: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1833
Author: Chris Buors
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
CANADA'S PRISONS DON'T COMPARE TO CLUB MED
Re: Our Posh Prisons, Our Opinions, Sept. 9, C4
I would like to see editorial writer Alisha Sims justify drug prohibition
before she rants on about incentives not to market drugs again. Drug
prohibition is immoral because the policy does not measure up to a single
one of the cardinal virtues of temperance, prudence, justice and fortitude.
Wanting your way so badly that you would willingly harm another person is
vainglory defined. Meting out criminal records for the vice of drugs is
vainglorious.
As owner and operator of the Manitoba Compassion Club I went to jail for
six months for producing and distributing cannabis to the ill. Let me
assure Ms. Sims jail is not exactly Club Med. Jail dehumanizes people. Jail
always has a highly tense atmosphere where violence could break out at any
moment over the most trivial of actions. One is always mentally on patrol
in jail rather than getting the peaceful night sleep Ms. Sims imagines. You
are, after all, residing with very violent people who settle their
differences without calling the cops.
The more important question to ask is what are convicted drug merchants to
do once released? For instance, in 1997, I was a locomotive engineer for CN
Rail before I was arrested with a cannabis garden. I refused drug
treatment, or the degradation of peeing in the bottle so my 20-year career
was over.
I am now unemployable in my chosen field because of my political activism.
I do not seek other employment because I will not contribute one single
cent in income tax until Canada ends the injustice of drug prohibition. You
will not be using my money to persecute scapegoats to benefit politicians.
Now that I have been to jail, I no longer fear my masters. It will be me
earning money on the black market or the taxpayers can spend $50,000 a year
keeping me in jail. Jail is after all, the proper place for a moral man in
a country with immoral laws.
Chris Buors
President
Marijuana Party of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Man.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman